Breathe Me
by SortaSaruhiko
Summary: Ereri; High School AU. Eren is in Junior year, though without his parents or a sister to support him, he's all by himself. Levi is supposedly the school bully, though... he doesn't quite act like it. How will these two unravel? WARNING — Self harm, depression, etc etc. If you easily get triggered by that stuff, this probably isn't for you. /YAOI.


_A/N: Hello~! I want to go ahead and get the disclaimer out of the way; I DON'T OWN SHINGEKI NO KYOJIN OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS PRESENT. The only thing I own is this story, which I'm really ashamed to own, because it's terrible, it truly is. I'm terribly sorry for you all._

 _Anywho, I'll most likely put trigger warnings if there happen to be any, and with the way it's going now, I'll probably have to add one or two. Do keep in mind that I mean no offense whatsoever by bringing up self harm and depression. I know how serious it is, and I'm not at all trying to make fun of it._

 _I'm always open for suggestions on what you think should happen; after all, it's you guys reading it, and not myself. As of now this story doesn't have a definite plan, so please give input if there's something you want to see._

 _I also have school, and though I sometimes work on chapters during that time, I may not be that quick with uploads. Do forgive me for that._

 _That being said, let's begin. - Coralline._

Eren gave a heavy, defeated sigh; another year at high school, it was. Junior year. To him, it seemed like each year simply got worse. He didn't have anyone to make it better, either- His parents were killed in a car crash, Mikasa had died in the crash as well. He had been the lone survivor, and moved in with Armin and his grandpa upon getting the chance. Of course, Armin had been ecstatic to live with him, and was always making sure he was okay. It was just the Armin thing to do.

But Eren was a burden to everyone. At least, that's what he told himself, because nobody needed him and nobody liked him, except for Armin, Marco, and Jean. Well, when Jean wasn't being a complete asshole. He was better off dead, he knew that better than anything else in his brain.

When the school bell rang, he secured the sleeves to the palms of his hands by holding them with his longest fingers, covering up what only he and his best friend knew was beneath the thin cloth. He didn't need something so loud being noticed.

Based on all the chatter, he picked up a few things about a few things and a few someone's. Great, gossip was _exactly_ what he needed to start his day off.

"Word has it there's a new school bully. What was his name, Levi? He's too short to be a bully, isn't he?"

"Is Mr. Cross nice? I heard he's a pedophile."

"Is lunch still $2.75?"

So Levi was someone Eren had to look out for, whoever the hell he was. School jock, school bully, didn't they all have at least _one_? Chances were he'd get made fun of for his eyes, as one of them was a vibrant teal, and one was a golden amber color. He got them from his mom, but it wasn't something he considered a good thing. On the other hand.. it was all he had left of her. What was it called again? Eren knew it had a name, but he'd only read about it once, and that was far too long ago for him to recall.

Eren's first class - English - was easy enough to find, as it was the first one down the hallway labeled 'B'. The halls were quite weird, really, even after being a student at this school for two years prior. They were all 'donut' hallways, if you went all the way down one end, you'd end up right back where you started. Confusing, almost, this place was to him. What was the school called again? Maybe it was Frosty.. or did it say Trust? Eren didn't remember this, either. They both seemed _equally_ stupid to him, regardless. Let's face it; school in general was stupid to him.

He wasn't wrong, either.

Eren had just arrived at the door to said class when he felt a rather rough poke at the small of his back. Cautiously spinning around, he noted it was a rather short boy, with a hard, sharp gaze and a fresh undercut. His lips were drawn into a thin line, and his eyebrows were narrowed, almost as if he were struggling with something. Maybe he was just constipated. That made sense, didn't it?

"..May I help you..?" He asked quietly; since his parents had passed, Eren had never quite spoken to anyone outside of his comfort zone. He had his group, but aside from that, he was overly shy, and avoided conversation as much as he possibly could. He'd kept his eyes hidden by his fringe until now, when he briefly brushed his hair aside so he could actually see who he was talking to. Not that it mattered, he just assumed it would be a polite thing to do.

But just as everyone else's, this teen's eyes gradually widened at the sight of such unexpected colors, though not by much. Little did Eren know, such an action was rather unusual coming from this particular boy- Eren merely assumed he was going to have yet another person tease him for being "cross-eyed," which for the record, was completely untrue. He could see just fine, how else would he manage on his own? What the hell did eye color have to do with vision?

"..No, never mind. Is this your class?" The ravenette had a slightly French accent, though his English was much more overpowering. He completely overlooked the fact that Eren was different.

That was a first.

It appeared to the taller of the two that the atmosphere surrounding them had changed. At first, it made the hall feel cold, but now, it felt soft, almost calm, aside from the overly exaggerated looks they were getting.. He could feel gazes piercing his flesh, the hunger of each and every person as they eyed him with malice and open jaws, wanting a taste of this conversation. Just who was this guy? Was he bad, or something? He _seemed_ decent enough.

Alas, Eren nodded in response to the shorter man's question, instinct telling him to hold his books closer to him. Not that he was _worried_ about them, he just didn't feel like picking them all up if they happened to fall. That would probably suck. No, it wasn't even probable, having everyone watch him gather scattered books _would_ suck.

"Mine too."

"O-Oh."

Their conversation died after that, as neither of them were too great at holding them, apparently. They both shuffled into the room, discovering that the teacher had assigned seats (something to do with 'placement preference') and Eren was stuck next to the one whose name he did not know. He couldn't work up the courage, or effort, to ask.

People had been glancing backwards at them with mysterious looks, as if they were waiting for something bad to happen. They were probably just wondering what was wrong with his eyes, since he finally had them revealed after years of keeping them secluded. Eren had learned to live with the 'what's wrong with his eyes?' 'is he blind?' and anything else he'd heard people whisper about him. He had _ear_ s, in case nobody had noticed, and they _worked_ just fine.

Eren wasn't exactly paying attention to the teacher, whose name he also did not know- he wasn't one to care for names, if it hadn't already been made obvious. Maybe it was the pedophile. He wouldn't be surprised; this guy looked ready to give you candy so as long as you got in his van. Talked like it, too. Either way, Eren found the clouds in the sky much more interesting than some old dude that probably smelled like feet.

"Oi, brat." the ravenette beside him left another rough poke in his flesh- which there wasn't actually too much of, he was rather scrawny- as words _clearly_ weren't getting his attention. Not much did, these days.

"..?" Were they supposed to be doing something? Hell if Eren wanted to do that. _Something_. Ugh, it was too much work.

"We need to get to know the people next to us. 'Making friends' or whatever the hell this guy kept rambling about. Didn't you hear him?"

"Oh.. no, I didn't." Well, Eren wasn't stuttering anymore, for the time being. That was good; it was improvement.

"..Are you going to tell me your stupid name, then?"

"E-Eren." If you thought about it, Eren _was_ a stupid name. Really stupid. It sounded like errand instead of Erin. Personally, the brunette blamed the 'e' for that. Way to go, 'e', for making his name sound like someone with dyslexia spelled his name wrong. Dyslexia was totally cool with him, until it came down to his name sounding like a twisted form of it. That was just plain upsetting.

"Eren." The shorter of the two tested the name, how it sounded with his own voice and how it made his tongue feel. "Not bad."

Was that a.. compliment? Eren didn't know how to respond to those; he never exactly got them. His face had faintly flushed, so he hid this from his desk partner by turning his visage towards the window, chin resting in his palm.

"I'm Levi, in case you wanted to ask, but didn't." This guy was totally a mind reader; you weren't convincing Eren otherwise.

At the sound of that name, something struck a cord.

Levi. _Levi._ Where had he heard that before?

 _"Word has it there's a new school bully. What was his name, Levi? He's too short to be a bully, isn't he?"_

.. _Oh._

/ Fanfiction A/N: Hey guys, it's been awhile since I posted here. This story was originally for my Wattpad, SortaSaruhiko, and I don't know if I'll continue it here. If you like this and want the next chapters, however, it'll be there. Thanks a ton, guys! -Saru


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